7 Celebs Who Embraced Non-Traditional Wedding Fashion Before It Was Trendy

Lately, it seems like the latest trend in wedding dresses is not wedding dresses. From Dua Lipa's dashing suit to Kristen Stewart's everyday knits, celebrity bridalwear has taken a decidedly casual turn. Unexpected colors are taking over, too. Pink and black, as seen on stars like Broadway's Kristen Chenoweth and Christine Quinn of "Selling Sunset," appear to be the most popular, but the whole rainbow is free game for famous brides.

Not that nontraditional wedding dresses are anything new. The rich and fabulous often like to do things differently, so for every pristine white ballgown on the celebrity news pages, there seem to be just as many eccentric ensembles. These are some exceptional individuals, after all, and what better day to express that individuality than the happiest day of their lives? Over the years, we've seen everything from shocking colors to fit-and-flares straight out of "Alice in Wonderland" to bridal bikinis.

Before Kourtney Kardashian's lingerie-inspired lace and Charli xcx's off-shoulder mini, Pamela Anderson was the queen of barely there bridalwear. Her matrimonial style of choice was a white bikini, which she wore to marry Tommy Lee on a Cancún beach in 1995 and Kid Rock on a yacht in the French Riviera in 2006. To be fair, both weddings were such spontaneous affairs that she may have simply not had time to procure anything more formal. It's a good thing she's apparently partial to white swimwear.

Leave it to Audrey Hepburn to make a nontraditional dress look as glamorous as the puffiest ballgown. For her 1969 wedding to Andrea Dotti, she embodied the swinging '60s in a long-sleeved Givenchy minidress with an artfully draped headscarf in the same pale pink shade. This was actually Hepburn's third wedding dress. The first, designed by Sorelle Fontana before her scrapped engagement to James Hanson, was a more formal full-length number. However, she went modern and never looked back with her second, a tea-length dress with a high-necked, puff-sleeved, button-down bodice that she wore to marry Mel Ferrer in 1954.

Elizabeth Taylor wore many wedding dresses, but she displayed her most chic nontraditional look at her 1959 wedding to Eddie Fisher. The olive green tea-length dress with a sweetheart neckline that gave way to sheer sleeves and a cowl-necked hood would have earned gasps of horror from traditional bridal stylists (sheer fabric? A bold, modern silhouette? Olive green?!). But it worked on her. Taylor loved an unusual color (she wore yellow to marry Richard Burton in 1964) as well as a hood (the dress she chose for her 1957 wedding to Mike Todd had one).

From the knees up, nothing seems nontraditional about the silk Galliano gown worn by Gwen Stefani at her 2002 wedding to Gavin Rossdale. A closer look, however, reveals both the shocking pink spray painted (yes, really) hem of the skirt and veil and a bodice that was specifically cut to fit askew. It was the perfect dress for two rock legends to join each other in holy matrimony. (By 2021, when Stefani married Blake Shelton, she'd gone more traditional with her bridalwear as well as her sound.)

When Julianne Moore married Bart Freundlich in 2003, her dress was so '90s — possibly literally. Her lavender Prada slip dress had actually been made for her to wear to the Oscars years earlier, where she lost for best actress (it's okay, she snagged it in 2015). Some may consider it too casual for a bride, but it perfectly matched the vibe of the rooftop garden wedding as well as Freundlich's shirt and tie. "I still don't know why the theme was purple," Moore joked on Instagram in 2025.

Emma Thompson as never been one to follow fashion rules — Thompson even used the 2014 awards show circuit to protest heels in the silliest ways — and that was true on her 1989 wedding day as well. The "Love Actually" icon chose a dress that was somewhere between Tim Burton and an Austrian milkmaid to marry fellow British screen legend, Kenneth Branagh. With a full skirt, corseted bodice, puff sleeves, and feathered headpiece, all in a wild geometric pastel print, the effect was unconventional, offbeat, and totally individual.

What do Pamela Anderson and Linda McCartney have in common? A penchant for spontaneous weddings. The photographer formerly known as Linda Eastman was always fashionably unpretentious, but when she was spotted leaving the register office after marrying Paul McCartney wearing a simple dress covered mostly by a yellow trench coat, it seemed surprisingly relaxed even for her. It turns out the wedding was hastily arranged only the day before, leaving her no time for bridal fittings, even if she'd wanted them. Considering their storied marriage, it just goes to show that it's love that matters, not luxury fashion.